Old & New

About Me

I am a doll maker and owner of the retail website clothdollpatterns.com. I am also an avid collector of dolls, antique dollhouses and miniatures. When I can't find what I want...I make it.
By day I am a long time VFX and Animation Producer, you can find my credits on Films such as Madagasgar and the Tinker Bell Movie. I currently work for a Video Game company. I live in Southern California with my amazing and talented husband, Marv Wolfman,

Friday, December 5, 2008

Friday, November 14, 2008

I work for the Cinematics Dept of Blizzard Entertainment and our newest game release for World of Warcraft came out this week. About 160 of us were at Fry's Electronics in Anaheim autographing for the fans of the game who stood in line for hours and hours to be the first to buy it. Here are some fun photos!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Hi: Here is a plug for the newest movie I worked on! I was the Associate Producer on this movie and it is a really cute film! Variety even liked it...and that's saying something! LOL. Check it out at a store near you!

Monday, August 11, 2008

I have been delinquent in posting these pics from my class with Barbara in June. This was her "perfume" class...what a blast!

This is the class doll that Barbara did. Here is Barb helping us with our faces. Here is my face (Barb helped fix it! LOL) Here is my finished face...it now has the cloth over the clay and the colored pencil and marker touches.

Here is my base body and a shot of the face. You can see the black and cream coat is now in place. I haven't finshed her yet..its on my to do list!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Hi: My regular Friday newsletter usually goes out via the yahoo group...but yahoo had a problem and the group is not sending out any messages...they are working on it but its been over a week and its not fixed yet. So...here is the latest info for you!

I am home from Comic Con...the annual trek to San Diego for a weekend of too many people jammed into a giant convention center! But I wouldn't miss it...tons of fun!! There is enough visual inspiration for dolls and all kinds of art to keep any artist busy for months! Due to that trip I did not list anything new on the site this week. However I don't think last week's newsletter actually made it out...so here is that info:

Newest Items:

SHERRY GOSHON: I have Sherry's Watercolor Faces CD ready for you all. This is an updating of an older workbook Sherry had self published 2 years ago. This new and updated version is in pdf format and has been completely edited by Kate Erbach. And since it is in pdf there are tons of color photos now. If you have been wanting to learn how to color your doll faces using watercolor pencils..this is the CD for you.http://clothdollpatterns.com/id72.htm

MARILYN JENSEN: Marilyn's Springtime Design line has a 16" doll pattern in it that I had not carried before. As Marilyn and I were discussing how her Dawn and Penny patterns sell so well...she suggested I bring this pattern in for you all to try. Its got a real "dolly" look to it and she is so cute! Check her out here:http://clothdollpatterns.com/id72.htm

Reorders in stock:

Dirty Crow Inn/ Two Dancing Crows: The 1892 pattern and MJ and her Sewing Machine are back in stock! MJ is one of my favorite patterns...I love her old fashioned singer style sewing machine!http://clothdollpatterns.com/patterns2/id79.htm

Pin Doll Booklet: The pin doll booklet published by my doll club is now back in stock...you will find it at the very bottom of the new items section. Back orders are shipping this weekend.http://clothdollpatterns.com/id72.htm

The New Items section was updated last week and I moved a lot of patterns out of it, into their respective homes. I try to do this regularly but had not kept it up since we started getting so many new patterns. Whenever I do this I always get a lot of questions about where a pattern went...if you know you saw it there and now I've moved it...just email me and I can help you find it!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

If you belong to a doll club, here is a great project for your group. You can use it as a fund raiser or gift...even if its a gift to yourself!

In my club we have a tradition that the outgoing President makes a little gift for each member of the club. I just retired as President and this was my gift project.

This is a "face book" its meant as a practice book for drawing faces or to practice coloring faces for cloth dolls. This tutorial will show you how I made them...though there are probably many ways to do it and I am sure you can improve on this!

I started by making the covers. I used blue poly felt cut to 4" x 11".

Next I took our Doll Club Logo (Created by elinor peace baily!) and used the computer to size it and add the words "Face Book" below the logo. I then printed 4 logos per page using my ink jet printer and the special print-on-fabric pack that is available at JoAnns.

I then cut out the logos using a square template . I also made yoyos and inserted them into the corner, under the logo fabric before I stitched the logos to the cover. After they were sewn I added a button trim on top the yoyo.

Next I cut "pages" out of face fabric. I used woven cotton but you could use knit as well. I used pinking shears for the edges. The pages are the same size as the cover..4 x 11 but the pinking makes them small enough to fit inside. Once you get them all cut out....time for the next step:

I used face stamps to give us a starting place when practicing. The stamps are only on the first two pages...after that its up to the doll maker to create her own faces!

I used a stamp by Karlene Atkins because I liked the clear backing...you can see through the stamp to get perfect positioning. I also got a perfect impression every time! Wow!

You can also get stamps from Barbara Willis, Barb Keeling and Patti Culea!

I used versamagic chalk ink in the "gingerbread" color to approximate a brown pigma pen.

Once you have your pages completed you center them inside the cover and sew down the middle to bind them. I then pressed them (using a pressing cloth so as not to melt the felt).

Here they are...all finished ready to hand out at the club meeting! I hope you have fun making your own Face Book!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

We spent a great day in Chinatown today...in downtown LA. We started with Dim Sum at 10am and then went across town to the FIDM Academy Nominated Films costume exhibit...wow..as usual! Then back to Chinatown for shopping and more food...yum! I got some more of the little lanterns like the one in the photos of my chinese themed doll in the previous post. They are so cute and only $1.50...plus they actually light up..love it!

Here are photos of me & hubby...we got a new camera so we had to try it out.